New kidney clinic boost to services
A Gold Coast satellite hospital facility has introduced new services tipped to “significantly enhance” healthcare accessibility in the region.
The Tugun Satellite Hospital announced the start of a kidney dialysis clinic on Wednesday.
Located on Boyd St on the southern end of the Coast, the clinic offers six new treatment chairs that can accommodate up to 48 patients weekly.
Registered nurse Claire Oliver has been appointed as the unit manager for the clinic. Ms Oliver said the service would provide support for patients who require dialysis but were not able to do it themselves at home.
“Each week, patients receive up to 12 hours of treatment, so being able to access dialysis closer to home will make it easier for patients to manage both their lifestyle and medical condition,” Ms Oliver said.
She said the kidney clinic would significantly enhance healthcare outcomes for patients waiting an extended period of time at hospitals.
“Initially, the clinic will offer six treatment chairs, with the capacity to deliver 144 treatments to 48 patients weekly.”
Dialysis is the process of filtering the blood of a person whose kidneys do not function normally. The expansion comes after the hospital’s minor injury illness clinic, which opened its doors on November 15.
The development was part of the $376m Satellite Hospital Program, which delivered seven satellite hospitals across the Gold Coast alone.
The headquarters for Friends of Federation Walk (FOFW) at The Spit is to be demolished with the volunteer army protecting the Gold Coast’s Central Park left homeless.
Save Our Spit (SOS) says the latest development shows “forces of darkness” are working to threaten environmental safeguards put in place under The Spit Masterplan.
SOS said Gold Coast City Council had ordered the removal of the site office used by Federation Walk at Philip Park for more than two decades.
The $1 million Federal Walk Coastal Reserve littoral rainforest was incomplete yet the volunteers were being “asked to give up their base camp”.
SOS said volunteers were told council wanted to build a new toilet block.
“However, according to budget estimates in council, the toilet block project is not set to commence until financial year 2025-26,” SOS wrote in an update to members.
“Similarly, no replacement HQ has been offered by council to FOFW, either attached to the new toilet block or as a separate site in the area.”
SOS says the site was where State Development pushed for the AJ Hackett “Skypark” bungy jump and now speculated to be the future home of an Aboriginal resource centre.
FOFW founder Lyn Wright told the Bulletin: “To be quite honest, I’m feeling sad (that the shed will be gone). On the other hand, we haven’t been offered any alternative.
“What our plans were, was to have an interpretative centre there. We could talk (to visitors) about the Spit. We would host planting days.”
In an email to Ms Wright, area councillor Darren Taylor said City officers had advised the building design for the public amenities was funded this financial year and has now been finalised “in readiness for construction”. He said officers had also offered help in removing any items from the Friends’ demountable.
“During my meeting with officers, they also advised, from a safety perspective, the demountable had reached its end of life and that the current electrical connection from the adjacent facility does not meet the required safety standards,” Cr Taylor said.
He also updated volunteers on the Aboriginal Cultural Centre originally, under the Master Plan, to be built across the road at the Village Centre North.
The government advised it was working with the registered Native Title Claimant Party and the Kombumerri Traditional Owners, investigating what a cultural centre “could include and how it could funded”.
An Options Analysis was under way to consider how the cultural centre could operate, different site options, the appropriate scale and to determine whether to proceed to detailed business case development, the government said.
No decision has been made on a preferred location and community consultation would be undertaken prior to a preferred location being determined, the government said.
Cr Taylor told the Bulletin that he was only aware of “murmurings in that space”.
He said FOFW agreed to the toilet upgrades after they were explained. be delivered and